Tuesday, March 17, 2020

CIRA International expose Quran scandal; improving on the text?

In answer to the video "Why are there over 30 different Arabic Qur’ans? - Quranic Corrections Ep. 3"

Going back to the Quran compilation, improvements on the basic script did not end with Uthman. Even after him, additional work had to be done on the Quran script to make it easier to read for both Arabs and non Arabs Muslims who werent familiar with Quran recitation. As shown earlier, the first compilations of the Quran were written in a defective script, lacking vowels and dotting. This wasnt a problem to those that already knew the proper recitation but could confuse the others. Steps were thus taken to gradually improve the orthography, by adding vowels and dots.

Ibn Umar (73/692) disliked the additions; others welcomed it, clearly because it was, in fact, doing no more than ensuring proper reading of the Quran as received from the Prophet, and this view was accepted by the majority of Muslims throughout the different parts of the Muslims world.

With the last mushaf written and sent to the distant provinces, while a copy remained in Medina to serve as a blueprint for further copies, the original scattered and partial pieces of written Quranic text in the hands of the Muslims had served their purpose of being a secondary preservation method next to the memorization, and could now be safely discarded and burned. Once again, not because there were competing traditions and texts, but because, in light of parallel evidence provided by mutliple memorizers, they were incomplete, or erroneous.

The miraculous preservation of the Quran isnt undermined by the presence of scribal errors, which is inevitable, but whether the entire written text is lost from the hands and especially the memories of the community, which has never hapenned as it did with the Biblical tradition several times over. In addition to the imperfections that prompted the destruction of those personal copies, even those texts in Muslim hands that were correct prior to Uthman's standardization, their basic script did not integrate the multiple qiraat/recitals. The whole idea behind Uthman's compilation effort was to standardize the written text in a manner that could facilitate its reading depending on one's recitation. No written text prior to his, integrated as many potential recitations in its skeletal structure.

That is the truth about the whole mountain of conspiracy created by Islam's misleading critics, seizing upon this opportunity which no Muslim ever protested against, to build their baseless charges against the Quran's authenticity. Scholars contemporary to Uthman, such as Abu ad-darda' made comparative studies between the mushaf of Medina and the others. The findings revealed no variation in the skeletal structure but a total of 40 single letters differences scattered over 6 mushafs.

These 6 mushafs were not private copies based on the ones approved and sent by Uthman, but were the very ones compiled under his watch then dispatched throughout the Muslim territories. This shows that these variants were known and approved. The compilers might have left them in because they agreed with the authenticated prophetic qiraat. This is the view of al Dani who stated that because Uthman could not accomodate all the qiraat in a single mushaf, he spread them throughout the masahif. Although the Medina mushaf was lost during the unrest that followed Uthman's assassination, based on the comparative notes left by the scholars that studied it, the present day Quran is in perfect congruence with what has been transmitted to us from the Medina mushaf. That is why Uthman is depicted as unbothered by copies based on his standardized text having grammatical flaws in them, to be disseminated because eventually
"the Arabs will be able to recite it correctly".
Again, this isnt speaking of errors in the script. Uthman would never have allowed such phenomenon be spread under his watch and despite his compilation efforts. These mistakes pertain to recitation. It isnt straightforward to grasp for non Arabs but some words if written in accordance with a particular recital can change the structure of that word. For example having 2 dots above a letter in one recital, but 1 dot in another. Or having an added ya at the end of a word. This may confuse the one unfamiliar with that particular recital and trying to read the word. Here is a similar situation
"When the writing of the Mus-haf was finished, it was brought to ‘Uthmaan and he looked at it, then he said: You have done well. I see something but we will be able to correct it according to our dialect".
Uthman saw something written differently from the way Quraysh would pronounce it, as happened with the word taaboot, which can be written with 2 different taa. He promised and did correct it according to the dialect of Quraysh.

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